Commercial Real Estate Agents – Learn from Lost Deals and Lost Listings

In commercial real estate agency, you can learn a lot from those lost deals and listing transactions.  It is a fact that you will not win all the listings that you pitch for.  It is well known that most agents will probably convert approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the listings that they pitch for.  The ratio improves when you improve your skills as an agent and top performer.  Practice can help you here.

It is important that we learn from both the good and bad things that happen as part of a commercial real estate career.  Some things will be beyond your control; however others will be controllable at least in part.

Here are some ideas and questions to raise with clients as part of the business review process from lost deals and lost listings:

1. In the case of a lost listing, understand where the weakness occurred.  Sometimes it is a matter of a clash of personalities or poor service.  Both of those things can be rectified before they become a problem.  A top real estate agent should adjust to the requirements of the client and help them with the prevailing market conditions.
2. Poor service in commercial real estate can happen for a number of different reasons.  Sometimes it is because the agent is excessively busy, and at other times it is because the agent fails to connect with the client sufficiently and correctly.  If you have an exclusive listing, the level of connection with the client should be escalated to the highest possible level.  You should be talking to the client at least every two days if not daily.  In the case of an open listing, the marketing and communication process with the client is far more random and discretionary.  If the client has chosen the open listing process, then they should understand that they will only hear from you when an opportunity exists.
3. If you are part of a competitive listing presentation, and you have lost a listing, you should ask the client to give you an overview of how that occurred and why your presentation was not up to standard.  If you do not win the listing, it is largely because your strategies, recommendations, and presentation process was not up to scratch.
4. Understand what you could have done better.  Ask the questions of the client.  What did the other agents do that were of attraction to the client.
5. Look at the differences between agencies to understand if the winning agent was part of a busier agency or had a better market profile.  Most clients will choose an agency that has a strong market presence and a comprehensive way of connecting with the right target audience.
6. All too often we see that the presentation or proposal decision is usually made on the strength of client’s confidence in the sales person concerned.  The final decision is not really about the size of your proposal for the comprehensive nature of the document.  Many proposals are very similar.  Take a serious look at the people involved in the sales presentation and how they connected with the client.  Did you have a strong and substantial relationship with the client before the presentation?  The other competing agents may have had that advantage.

In commercial real estate agency today, you will win some of the listings that you pitch on.  Other listings you will lose for many different reasons.  Try to investigate each process so that you can adjust your presentation strategy.